Bill To Repeal Incinerator Subsidies Has New Life, Friends In House

A long-languishing bill to dump hefty tax subsidies for garbage incinerators has roared back to life in Springfield after being declared dead last month by House Democratic leaders.

The measure, which would repeal subsidies expected to cost the state up to $750 million over the next two decades, advanced from the Democratic-controlled House rules panel on Tuesday and is awaiting a vote by the full House.

The move reflected an apparent change of heart by the House Democratic leadership, which had held the bill in committee since the end of last year's session.

The legislation has created one of the oddest sets of alliances ever seen in Springfield.

Environmental groups, realizing the potential of the bill to kill any planned incinerators, support it, along with fiscal conservatives.

The Illinois Manufacturers' Association, the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce, the chemical industry, organized labor and the legislature's Black Caucus-which wants to see impoverished communities like Robbins reap state subsidies-all oppose the bill.

But in recent days, House leaders, including Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), have come under increasing pressure to let the bill come up for a vote.

Those lawmakers pushing for a vote include Sen. Patrick O'Malley (R-Palos Park), Rep. Maureen Murphy (R-Evergreen Park))and Rep. Terry Steczo (D-Oak Forest), all of whom have been swamped with calls and letters from constituents opposed to the nearby proposed Robbins incinerator and to the Retail Rate Law subsidies for the project.

Most of those legislators face tough re-election races this fall and pushed to get the bill moving in an effort to win badly needed votes, said Lynn Padovan, lobbyist for the Illinois Environmental Council.

"The folks who live in those districts mean business," she said. "They had a little tea party with Steczo in the last week and laid it on the line. They are deadly serious" about wanting incinerator subsidies killed.

Developers of the proposed $300 million Robbins incinerator, the project closest to becoming reality, have said they would not build their plant without the subsidy. But they also say that their project would be exempt from any repeal of the law because it predates the repeal effort.

Under the Illinois Retail Rate Law, the Robbins project and other incinerators in Illinois that would burn garbage to produce electricity are eligible for hundreds of millions of dollars in no-interest state loans with no guarantees the principal would ever be paid back.

Recyclers and other competitors for trash say that amounts to an unfair competitive advantage for incinerators. Environmentalists point out that the subsidies, the richest in the United States, are making Illinois a magnet for burners and could financially strap the state.

A full House vote on the legislation could come as early as Tuesday, sending the bill to Gov. Jim Edgar since it has already passed the Senate.

Edgar, questioned about the bill in public forums recently, has said he "would be sympathetic to that kind of legislation."